Below The Beltway

In less time than it usually takes me, I’ve made my way through the final volume of Harry Turtledove’s Great War Trilogy, The Great War: Breakthroughs. Through more than 500 pages, the book delivers what it promises; thanks to some daring military thinking and the overwhelming force of numbers, the United States gets its revenge and not only defeats the Confederate States, but humbles it mightily.

The parallels to the end of World War One in Europe and what happened to Germany could not be more apparent. Like Germany, the CSA will see its territory taken and its military emasculated. And, like Germany, the CSA will find itself populated by those who believe that their loss was due to treason within the ranks, rather than the superiority of outside forces. There is action elsewhere, of course; in Canada, one family makes its peace with the Americans, while another takes up arms. Characters that have become well known over the course of three books meet their end, or return from war to a home far different fromt he one they left.

There is much to criticize about Turtledove’s writing style. He has an annoying habit of telling a character’s back story over and over again every time we meet them — as if we’d never heard of this person before. And, one could get drunk pretty quickly playing a drinking game involving the number of times certain characters thought about, or engaged in, sex. All the same, he tells a story that is captivating because it is entirely plausible, and that’s what keeps me coming back.
The does continue, of course, in the American Empire covering the years after the end of the Great War.

Before I start down that road, it will be time for a diversion into a little bit of non-fiction starting with an encounter with a certain President John Adams

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Book Review: How Few Remain
Book Review: The Great War: American Front
Book Review: The Great War: Walk In Hell

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